Guide

20 restaurant marketing ideas that fill tables

Proven ways to get more covers for cafes, restaurants, bars and takeaways, from free fixes you can do tonight to campaigns that cost a few hundred pounds.

By Christopher Fagan. Updated 3 November 2026.

Free fixes first

1. Finish your Google Business Profile. Opening hours, menu, photos of real dishes, a booking link and a reply to every review. Most people searching for somewhere to eat never get past the map results.
2. Ask for reviews at the table. A card with a QR code when the bill arrives. Reviews from the last month matter more than reviews from three years ago.
3. Put the menu and prices online. People will not book what they cannot see.
4. Photograph the food properly. Daylight, a plain table and the dishes you are proudest of. Use them everywhere.
5. Post what is happening today. The special, the new dessert, the table by the window. Short, real and frequent beats polished and rare.
6. Collect email addresses. Booking confirmations and a sign up at the till build a list you own, unlike social followers.

Fill the quiet times

7. Early and late offers. A set menu before 6pm or after 9pm fills tables that would otherwise be empty, without discounting the busy hours.
8. Weekday events. A quiz, a tasting, a supper club, live music or a bring your own bottle night.
9. A loyalty scheme people understand. Every sixth coffee free, or a stamp card for lunches. Keep it simple.
10. Office lunches and group bookings. Email the nearest offices with a group menu and a direct number.

Get seen locally

11. Partner with neighbours. A hotel, a theatre, a gym or a hairdresser can hand out your offer in exchange for theirs.
12. A digital advertising van. An LED advertising van with your dishes and offer on the screens, driving the streets around your restaurant at lunchtime and early evening, and parking outside the station, the office quarter or the busiest competing restaurants. It works especially well for a new opening or a new menu. From £595 a day with a driver.
13. Local press and food writers. Invite them for a meal with no strings. A real review in the local paper or a well followed food account is worth more than any advert.
14. Sponsor something small. The local junior football team, a charity run or a community event, with your name on the kit or the finish line.
15. Leaflet the right doors. A takeaway menu through the letterboxes of every home within a ten minute walk, timed for Thursday or Friday.

Give people a reason to come back

16. A seasonal menu change. Four times a year, announced properly, gives regulars a reason to return and gives you something to post about.
17. Birthday rewards. Collect birthdays at sign up and send a free dessert or a glass of fizz in the week.
18. Gift vouchers. Sell them online and in the restaurant. Vouchers bring new people in and are often never fully redeemed.
19. Cookery classes or chef's table nights. A premium event that makes money and creates stories people tell.
20. Delivery and collection done your way. Your own ordering page avoids the marketplace commission, and a flyer in every delivery bag brings people in for the sit down experience.

What to do this week

Fix the Google profile, photograph six dishes and ask for reviews at every table. Those three cost nothing and move the needle more than any paid idea. Then pick one quiet time to fill and one way to get seen locally, and give each a month before judging it.

Questions